Amazon and eero announced on February 11th, 2019, that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire eero. eero’s home mesh WiFi systems set up in minutes and blanket every room of a customer’s home in high-performing, reliable WiFi.

Competition has slowed for LED lighting component suppliers over the past two years, as global LED production capacity reached its peak. This slow-down has forced suppliers to determine the best way to digest the huge production capacity, while minimizing any possible harm to the industry.

The global annual unit shipment of wireless power receivers and transmitters, across all applications, sectors and product segments, is forecast to grow from 450 million units in 2017 to more than 2.2 billion units in 2023 – rising to 7.5 billion units in 2027.

At CES 2019, there was no shortage of exciting news and buzz for smart home and appliances. Lighting, security cameras, software integrations and voice assistants took center stage in smart home announcements, while for appliances, the big news was on displays, artificial intelligence (AI) and guided cooking.

The global market for fire detection and suppression equipment connected through building management system (BMS) platforms reached $700.8 million in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.6 percent, through 2022. This rise in connectivity can be seen across all global regions, including Latin America.

Although still a bourgeoning market, the smart home is no longer just for hobbyists or techies, and device manufacturers and service providers are looking to take these technologies to the masses. They will accomplish this by focusing on what customers know and understand, which includes video cameras, smart speakers, thermostats and home gateways

With Facebook’s recent release of Portal+, its first smart speaker/display, and with Google’s debut of Home Hub, its first native smart speaker/display, the upcoming holiday season in the United States could be a bellwether for the future of smart speaker form factors.

Announced last week by Amazon, Alexa Guard turns any Amazon Echo into a security device, using what the company calls “guard mode.” Once in guard mode, Echo devices will send an alert and audio recording to the user’s mobile phone, if it “hears” the sound of breaking glass or if a smoke alarm or carbon-dioxide detector is triggered.

Demand for ACaaS has grown rapidly over the past five years, and this growth is expected to continue. While there have been relatively few attempts to combine ACaaS solutions with mobile access, despite their apparent synergies, this type of integration will become more common over the next five years.

At the recent Sensors Expo & Conference in San Jose, California, industry engineers, professionals, and observers gathered to discuss and survey the latest developments in sensors as the devices, a mainstay in industrial and electronics manufacturing, adjust to a slew of new technological forces and a rapidly changing environment.

Factors leading to the strong performance in 2017 was consumer education and the consumer education was being driven from many directions- retailers (Best Buy), cable/internet providers (Comcast), e-tailers (Amazon), security providers (Vivint) and big names like Nest launching security ecosystems and Sonos launching a smart speaker.